Follow Us!

CES 2012 Coverage

CES Final Thoughts

Amanda

This was both my first trip to CES, and my first trip to Las Vegas; needless to say it was quite overwhelming. Everything was so big and flashy and alive from 12am one day to 12am the next day – Vegas truly doesn't sleep. It was really neat to meet all the fellow staff members from OCC in person. There's ones you expect and others that are completely different what you had expected. Especially that Dave guy – no, not really, but you do get stuck with a Canadian accent after a week with him.

As one of the first females to actually represent OCC staff there it was pretty interesting. I fit in more than I probably should have, but the guys really treated me as if I belonged. It was a lot of fun and I hope I get the chance to go again, or at least see these guys again.

As far as the actual show went, I have to say it was completely and utterly EPIC. Three sections, north, central, and south with multiple floors and miles of coverage each was just mind boggling. After one day there I knew I wanted to go back and find everything I missed the first day. Driving the NVIDIA 3D racing set up was not enough, I needed more! As a reviewer, meeting with the companies that I've dealt with behind the scenes was probably the best part of the entire trip. Communicating with some of the representatives to fix problems through email became "real" when I got to meet them face to face. The whole trip was just surreal, I can't wait to do it again, and give big props to the boss for making it all happen – thanks Dave.

Andrew

This was my fourth straight CES. Seeing new technology and booth babes was certainly enjoyable, as was playing games I've eagerly been awaiting, like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Firefall, and the PS Vita. But honestly, that's not why I choose to go to CES each year, nor is it why I enjoy it so much. I love CES because I get to hang out with my fellow OCC staff members. It's always great seeing old friends, but this year also brought a lot of new faces. Any active OCC member knows that the sense of community is one of the best things about OCC, and that's no different among staff — we're like one big (dysfunctional) family! And surprisingly, aside from one instance of thrown silverware, we all get along exceptionally well, making it a lot of fun even when we're simply sitting in a room together writing about companies for you guys. Being from all over the world, for most of us, CES is the only time we get to actually hang out in person.

Aside from that, I also love meeting with companies and this year I'd like to extend special thanks to NVIDIA, Cooler Master, Razer, and ECS, as I got to speak one-on-one with several representatives from those companies on a more personal level rather than just a strictly business one. However, the highlight of the trip for me had nothing to do with companies or even computers — it was meeting Ron Duguay, a former New York Ranger (my favorite team). Being able to speak with him about the current and future state of the Rangers, as well as his play in the Winter Classic alumni game, was a pretty cool experience. That probably would have been a highlight regardless, but it's also indicative of the rather sorry state CES has become — it's simply not as cool as it used to be. There was very little in terms of new and exciting technology unveiled, and the show floor was riddled with mobile accessories companies — seriously, how many different iPhone case manufacturers does the world truly need?

Despite the apparent decline of CES, I still hope I get to go again next year. Like I said, it's not really about the technology for me, it's about the people. Thanks to Dave for once again letting me tag along!

Chuck

This was my first time to CES and my first time to Vegas and I cannot say much more than I loved every minute we spent there. I was a tad disappointed with the lack of new gadgets and hardware on the CES Show Floor though. It seemed that all the company's I was hoping to see new technology from had a small booth and nothing more to show than a laptop with a game for us to play.

It was finally nice to meet Dave (Bosco) after knowing him online for 10 years and it was great to finally meet the other staff members and get to see the "fun" side of everyone. The OCC community has always been like another family to me and getting to meet these guys is always a great pleasure for me.

The highlight of my CES week was the party Patriot held in the Palms Hardwood Suite. I got to play basketball in a freaking hotel room. How sweet is that? By the end of the night I was pretty hot and could make a shot from pretty much any spot on the court.

I would like to thank Dave again for inviting me and also thank the other members who came for putting up with me all week. Oh thank you Andrew for not spooning me in the middle of the night. :)

Frank

CES is not only a time to see all the latest and greatest gadgets on the planet but to meet face to face with many of the people we work with. Not only the industry representation but the people we work with each day from behind the keyboard. Getting to see the latest technology however is the primary reason for making the journey. Getting that sneak peek on what’s coming up from some of the ROG innovations from ASUS, the upcoming Intel Ivy Bridge based products from the likes of MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, Zotac, Sapphire, ECS and more. Drive technologies from OCZ, Patriot and Corsair. Content creation and streaming video seems to really be an ever expanding market with companies such as ECS showing off their Wi-Bridge device, Sapphire showing off their Vid-2X that takes a single display and spreads it across up to three display devices. Of course the stunning builds from Cyberpower PC are always a joy to look at and drool over. Now that the trip is over and we are all back home the real work starts as all the cool stuff we were privileged to see starts to show up for a closer look. Off to work!

Jeff C

This was my first time attending CES and my first time meeting anyone else from OverclockersClub. Initially I was a bit concerned about meeting all these guys in Las Vegas that I had only known on the forums. I didn't know how the rest of the guys (and girl) would act or if we'd get along. Would they be annoying? Would they be weird? Would any of my roommates snore worse than I do? But I took a chance and packed my ear plugs just in case. I met many of them in the hotel when I first arrived and was relieved to find that they were all normal, laid-back people. We all got along really well, even though Frank snored like an elephant.

The show itself was a lot of fun as well. The entire convention center was so enormous that I didn't think we'd manage to see everything in an entire week. There were a ton of 3D TVs, tablets, mobile accessories, headphones, and speakers. Unfortunately, there wasn't much computer hardware being shown off, but the stuff that we did see was pretty cool. It was fun talking to all of the companies' representatives about their current and upcoming products, and it was great to see their excitement to meet us as well.

Throughout the entire week that I spent in Las Vegas, I kept feeling that it was all just a dream. The convention center, the hotels, the casinos, the bars — it was all so incredible. I had so much fun hanging out with everybody from OCC and I have a lot of great memories to take away from it. I want to thank Dave for giving me the opportunity to attend and I can't wait to come back again.

Jeff L

CES was a cool event as always and getting to meet people was interesting. I worked the south hall and felt that there was less PC related gear than in the past. Portable devices and accessories for those items are all the rage. Getting to see the latest and greatest is a fun experience However, as a PC loyalist I am not encouraged by the tablet/netbook trend.

Justin

As always it was a ton of fun coming out here to to Las Vegas for CES. The show floor was a lot smaller for our niche as mobile computing has really started to take over the scene with not only tablets but with cell phones and accessories alike. My two favorite things about coming out here to see all of the new technology that is soon to be released or has recently been released; but being able to hang out with fellow staff members. This year we had quite a few more members come than previous years and a lot of them were fresh faces to me, but good old names. It is always a sad time to leave Las Vegas/CES at the end of the week, but it will come around again in a year and we will be able to give you guys some great coverage again. I did get to hang out with Hienrich Jager from Neoseeker and help show him the ropes as it was his first time coming out to the convention. We all did have a great time and had some memorable moments. Hopefully you all enjoyed keeping up with the article as we all enjoyed writing for you.

Mark

So I have been dreaming of going to both CES and Las Vegas for many years now. When I first took the job as a Review Editor for OCC, I wasn't even thinking about getting an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Then Bosco posted about CES and asked the staff who would be interested, needless to say I jumped at the opportunity and was very thankful when I got an invite! The show was awesome, just walking around on the floor and getting to see all of the vendors showing off their products was a great experience. It felt pretty cool to get to see things that weren't even out on the market yet, like playing the futuristic jet-ski game on the phone at the Fujitsu booth that had a quad-core CPU in it with an HDMI cord going to a large LCD TV. Even though it wasn't going to be released in the US, due to carrier restrictions :( But, the best part of the show for me was definitely getting to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a game that I am eagerly awaiting and isn't even out yet. I probably looked like a little kid in a candy store when I walked up to the Plantronics booth and realized it was the new CS, I'm sure Chuck can vouch for this! The show was amazing, but not the best part of the trip!

Getting to meet everyone and putting faces with screen names, then real names was the best part! Grabbing food, hanging out, and going to the parties with everyone from OCC was awesome! Especially the Patriot/MSI/Intel party in the Hardwood Suite at the Palms! That was by far the most fun of all the events I attended over the week. You walk in and there is half of a basketball court in the freaking suite! I have typically been an AMD fan on the GPU, but after meeting some of the guys from NVIDIA, one of them from my home state, I may have to go with the green team for my next upgrade.

All in all, it was a great trip and it was nice to meet everyone on the OCC CES 2012 team. I want to say a big thanks to Dave for giving me the opportunity to go. When I left to go to Vegas, I knew screen names and avatars. When I left Vegas to come home, I had made some new friends! Hope to go again and see some familiar faces.

Max

CES was a lot different from 6 years ago when I went. The first time I went the computer side of tech we were there for was everywhere, this time car audio, 3D TVs, and cell phone accessories ruled the show. To put faces with the names I have worked with was great. It was great meeting people from NVIDIA, Fractal, MNPCTech, IN WIN, Cooler Master, and more. To get a thumbs up for the mods I had done to my Stacker 810 from the CM crew was the best approval I could ever ask for. This was the first time I have had to write things up, so I hope you will forgive a moderator trying to do a reviewers job.

Mike

Though this was my second time attending CES with the OverclockersClub crew, I can say without any doubt that I still had no idea what to expect. If I did, I would have been proven wrong! I got to meet an entire new round of people, and still got to chill with the folks that I met last year. Even though it has been an entire year since I met anyone for the first time, walking into the hotel room and seeing everyone again felt like CES 2011 was only a few weeks ago. I have to say that since we had exactly twice the amount of folks this year as we did last year, I was hoping for half of the work. Man, was I wrong — by no means did that make the work any easier! It simply meant that there was twice the amount of stuff we could do. The OCC staff is such a hardworking set of people and though many of us get to see that through the internet, it is a true privilege to see it in person.

I can honestly say that between CES this year and last year, they have been some of the most fun experiences of my life. Even while suffering from a complete and utter lack of sleep, horrifyingly achy feet, stress levels through the roof and a schedule a mile long, all of that goes away in the few tiny filaments of free time we occasionally get blessed with when we got to relax for a few moments with the OCC family. I look forward to meeting everyone again next time I make it out to CES and hope to again meet some new faces. I almost couldn't ask for a better way to spend a week; each time I've been comes close to topping most of the vacations I've been on. Over and out — this is airman and I approve this message.

Nick

I have wanted to go to CES since I started working for OCC a few years ago, and Las Vegas since I turned 21. It didn't disappoint. It was nice to finally meet some of the staff from OCC and prove to my mother that not all people you meet on the Internet are crazy. I was able to see a lot of cool stuff at all of the booths, and meet a lot of cool people throughout the week. I really enjoyed the offerings from Sennheiser, NVIDIA, and Razer, and can't wait to see more of all the products that were introduced at CES.

We did a lot of work while we were there, walking around the convention center, taking pictures at the booths, and writing articles. We also had a lot of fun when we weren't working. I hope to be able to go back next year and spend more time with all of the OCC staff, but that will have to wait until next year. As I write this, I feel I am finally getting over the jet lag and lack of sleep from the last week as I get ready to go back to work and the real world tomorrow.

Dave

This was my sixth time to CES and as usual we were just as busy as the year before.

This year we had 13 bodies to help cover the event, which made things a lot easier to deal with. The crew that we had this year worked very hard and very late hours to make sure things were taken care of.

As usual the Internet connection was crappy. It's funny with a city that has so much money coming in, you would think they could spend some on the Internet. But I guess doing that would mean less money in Casinos.

Again this year we saw even more companies moving into Hotels and off the show floor, it will be interesting to see what happens in the next year or two to see if CES will survive or not. IMO the show is dying. A full level at the show for just Cell Phone cases like really......

I want to thank all of the companies that spent time to meet with us and host after parties, I would also like to thank all of the staff that attended the show that made my life so much easier. Special thanks goes out to company reps Bryan, Sean and Ramsom for the extra stuff that you guys did :).